While we were in Gatlinburg this past Monday for the Tennessee FFA Convention, we took Paxton to the Aquarium of the Smokies as part of his birthday present! We want to give our children gifts of experience instead of a lot of things and Paxton loves fish and penguins since his trip to the Tennessee Aquarium back in December! We knew he’d love a visit to the aquarium and we were right!

A shark!!

He loved looking at the fish in this big tank!

You can’t tell very well since it was so dark but he’s squatting down looking up at the fish in awe! Precious moment!

Seahorses! I love all the little sea creatures, they’re intricate and beautiful!

Checking out wild looking sea dragons! They were beautiful!

Enjoying the fish with Paxton!

There was this fish that talked about the different parts of a fish and Paxton loved it! It’s talking here and Paxton has his hands in its mouth! Too funny!

Pushing buttons to make the fish talk!

Love this sweet smile…he had a blast!

Checking out treasure!

Crawling with daddy to see the penguins up close!

Paxton and Daddy up close with penguins!

And crawling out!

A beautiful penguin!

He’s ‘touching’ a penguin swimming up against the glass!

With my sweet boy…he was a little upset because this part of the penguin exhibit was outside and he thought we were leaving! He kept saying ‘fish’ and pointing! I guess that’s a sign he had a blast!

Paxton recently rediscovered his farm and he’s been farming all the time! He played with it a solid 30 minutes the day he rediscovered it and has been playing with it daily since. {I’m going to be more serious about toy rotation…it works!}

All the plates and cups were used to feed his animals! He knows how to take care of his livestock!

Hard at play!

One day Weston was sleeping so I moved the barn out into the hall to encourage him to play outside of his room…he just sat down and played there for a long time!

Silly boy!

Last Saturday, John David was outside putting in a raised bed along our sidewalk. It had rained the night before so the area the bed was going into was full of mud.

John David, being a man, spit. Well, Paxton loves to imitate daddy, so he leaned over the edging of the raise bed to spit like daddy and fell, right into the mud! He wasn’t hurt at all, just covered in mud. As soon as he stood up he said, “I’m a mess!” John David and I had a good laugh!

Our muddy, muddy boy!

He’s asking daddy to clean his hands off! As soon as I put down the camera, I washed off his hands with the waterhose and he continued playing hard!

The past few weeks, the weather has been absolutely beautiful and we’ve been outside a lot enjoying flowering in bloom, watching our chickens, gardening and all the wonderful things that come with spring!

Sweet Paxton loves flowers!!

It’s been wonderful to get this little guy out some. We typically play while he’s napping or I wear him but it’s fun to bring a quilt out and let him enjoy being outside. {And I thought having a December baby was horrible but it’s really nice, now that the weather is warming up, he’s old enough to be outside with us! Paxton was an April baby and we pretty much stayed inside all spring and summer when he was teeny.}

Look at that serious look from such a little person!

He’s holding his head up like such a big boy!!

I adore his sweet little baby hair!!

While I was snapping pictures of Weston, Paxton was having a blast playing around this tree.

It is so much fun watching him and his imagination! A stick or a pinecone, coupled with the imagination of an almost 2 year old, becomes many fun things…who needs toys?!

Belly bumping the tree…so happy I captured this moment!

Playing with pinecones.

And the best shot I could get of the boys together…photographing 2 little ones is hard work!

Now that’s it’s nearly mid-March, I’m wrapping up February on this blog! I just get behind! These pictures are from the 20th to 29th!

While ironing one day, I propped Weston up on the Boppy and he fell asleep…precious!!

Sweet, sweet little baby!

Weston was napping and Paxton was playing on the iPad and I knocked out the ironing!

I put Paxton in one of our old slings just to see if he would fit and he did! He immediately put his head on my shoulder and seemed quite cozy!

Love his grumpy face!

Having fun with the toddler in the sling!

He hijacked my boots and was stompin’ around in them!

Walking so good in mamas big boots!

Brothers…matching! I love it!

Sweet, sweet boys!

Sweet chunky little Weston!!

Paxton put macaroni in his hair one night. It was funny so I had to take a picture so I could look back and laugh but I was not happy at the moment. Macaroni & cheese is hard to get out of hair…especially the hair of a toddler who hates having his hair washed, not fun!

One night hanging out with us before bedtime…before he move to his crib.

My sweet little baby!! And notice his awesome hairline?!?!

I love the back of his sweet little head and that long hair on the bottom!

I haven’t updated on this blog in a while so here is a post full of pictures of the boys from February 7-13!

Wearing sweet Weston! He loves this carrier and so do I!

Our sweet little farmer! He love wearing his hat these days {since daddy wears a hat all the time!}

Running! Love it!

He’s also big into helping daddy! He received a hammer from his Aunt Pam for Christmas and he loves using his ‘ham’ outside in the shop! John David has created him a board with nails in it {that he can’t get out} for him to hammer on! And of course, he’s supervised when he’s in the shop! It’s precious watching him trying to be just like daddy!

Sweet little helper!

Little Weston is quite the chunk these days! He looks so chunky in this shot…I just love it!

Sweet baby smiles!

Paxton has quite the appetite these days so I decided to take pictures of his lunch so I could see exactly how much this boy puts away! Here’s round 1!

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

I was amazed at how much he ate!

2 peanut butter crackers

3 apple slices

3 baby carrots

5 cubes of cheese

1 banana

5 chips

handful of trail mix

We might have to up the grocery budget soon!Weston was given his first bottle on the 13th! He did a pretty good job taking it!

This is one of my favorite pictures! We found Paxton looking like he had a goatee after he got into a box of chocolate and helped himself to a piece! Love this expression!

Welcome to our family blog! It's is a glimpse into our life as a church media director (John David), stay at home mom (Rachel), adorable toddler (Paxton) and precious baby (Weston)! We strive to live a simple, Christ honoring life on one income!